Hello All - not been around much lately in the posting sense of the word, but have kept up with the usual plethora of fascinating, joyous and heartbreaking stories here. Which reminds me that I must drop Hissy/ Mary-Anne a note.
Time for a nice tale of my own...
Over the last few weeks, Rudi - my lovely long-time-stray lad - has been spending more and more time inside (see picture). He's a bit twitchy when he's around the utility room/ kitchen area and would, I suspect, freak out if he was closed in, but he does love a good belly rub on the carpet. We probably have 2 such sessions of 15-20 minutes a day.
http://s1235.photobucket.com/albums/...udiindoors.jpg
He's been thanking me (I think it's him - might be Little Cow) by leaving scattered entrails and decapitated rabbits all over the garden. Delightful!! He seems to like the garden, does Rudi: many's been the early evening or weekend he has sat and watched us weed vegetables, pick rhubarb and generally try and bring order to the chaos that is the dryest English mid-late Spring on record.
Early this morning I noticed that one of his eyes was half-closed and a bit weepy - very similar to how it was a few weeks back when I tried without success to catch him for a vet trip. So I girded my loins, didn't book an appointment, bought a new cat carrier I'd seen (a toploader, so to speak) and, with a little help from a friend, late this afternoon I got him in and whisked him off to the vets. Poor chap was moaning all the way, although he calmed down when on the treatment table and took it like a man. Anyway turns out he has a touch of conjunctivitis in both eyes AND he's also been in a recent scrap or six. Indeed, the vet looked at his ears and reckons he has scars and scabs going back many moons. So he got a nice dose of antibiotics to help clear those, a weigh-in (he's lost 0.3 lbs, probably all fur!!) and a load of eye drops, which is treatment I have to continue to administer over the next week or so. Bless her, the vet was very understanding: when I asked 'should I keep him in?', her response was that, if he were a mainly indoor cat, she'd bar any outside visits for 10 days. However, she felt that he would be traumatised by being cooped up and as he was in generally good nick he'd be happier if he could roam.
So I let him go when I got back. He bolted for the barn and I thought that'd be the last I'd see of him till the morning earliest. However, 5 minutes later he was out and about and sniffing round Little Cow's food bowls so I took out two sachets of whiskas salmon and watched him wolf down 1.5 sachets in next to no time. Clearly hadn't lost his appetite (indeed, this is normally more wet than he gets all day).
And within 10 mins, whilst I was weeding away in my bedraggled rhubarb patch, guess which forgiving boy decided to come and join his Big Friend to see what was going on and, just maybe, get a belly rub or two? You guessed it - see photos below. You'll see what I mean about his eye in one/ both of them.
http://s1235.photobucket.com/albums/...inrhubarb1.jpg
http://s1235.photobucket.com/albums/...inrhubarb2.jpg
What a good and accepting lad he is!! Rest assured, he got quite pampered tonight.
....and Little Cow wasn't forgotten either. There are some very small signs of her warming up to me now, too, though my exclusion zone is still on or around the 30ft mark. But she seems to be having the time of her life on the farm at the moment and that is reward enough in itself. At some point down the line, I shall convince the other members of the house that a couple more ferals need the good life here, too.
Time for a nice tale of my own...
Over the last few weeks, Rudi - my lovely long-time-stray lad - has been spending more and more time inside (see picture). He's a bit twitchy when he's around the utility room/ kitchen area and would, I suspect, freak out if he was closed in, but he does love a good belly rub on the carpet. We probably have 2 such sessions of 15-20 minutes a day.
http://s1235.photobucket.com/albums/...udiindoors.jpg
He's been thanking me (I think it's him - might be Little Cow) by leaving scattered entrails and decapitated rabbits all over the garden. Delightful!! He seems to like the garden, does Rudi: many's been the early evening or weekend he has sat and watched us weed vegetables, pick rhubarb and generally try and bring order to the chaos that is the dryest English mid-late Spring on record.
Early this morning I noticed that one of his eyes was half-closed and a bit weepy - very similar to how it was a few weeks back when I tried without success to catch him for a vet trip. So I girded my loins, didn't book an appointment, bought a new cat carrier I'd seen (a toploader, so to speak) and, with a little help from a friend, late this afternoon I got him in and whisked him off to the vets. Poor chap was moaning all the way, although he calmed down when on the treatment table and took it like a man. Anyway turns out he has a touch of conjunctivitis in both eyes AND he's also been in a recent scrap or six. Indeed, the vet looked at his ears and reckons he has scars and scabs going back many moons. So he got a nice dose of antibiotics to help clear those, a weigh-in (he's lost 0.3 lbs, probably all fur!!) and a load of eye drops, which is treatment I have to continue to administer over the next week or so. Bless her, the vet was very understanding: when I asked 'should I keep him in?', her response was that, if he were a mainly indoor cat, she'd bar any outside visits for 10 days. However, she felt that he would be traumatised by being cooped up and as he was in generally good nick he'd be happier if he could roam.
So I let him go when I got back. He bolted for the barn and I thought that'd be the last I'd see of him till the morning earliest. However, 5 minutes later he was out and about and sniffing round Little Cow's food bowls so I took out two sachets of whiskas salmon and watched him wolf down 1.5 sachets in next to no time. Clearly hadn't lost his appetite (indeed, this is normally more wet than he gets all day).
And within 10 mins, whilst I was weeding away in my bedraggled rhubarb patch, guess which forgiving boy decided to come and join his Big Friend to see what was going on and, just maybe, get a belly rub or two? You guessed it - see photos below. You'll see what I mean about his eye in one/ both of them.
http://s1235.photobucket.com/albums/...inrhubarb1.jpg
http://s1235.photobucket.com/albums/...inrhubarb2.jpg
What a good and accepting lad he is!! Rest assured, he got quite pampered tonight.
....and Little Cow wasn't forgotten either. There are some very small signs of her warming up to me now, too, though my exclusion zone is still on or around the 30ft mark. But she seems to be having the time of her life on the farm at the moment and that is reward enough in itself. At some point down the line, I shall convince the other members of the house that a couple more ferals need the good life here, too.